Domestic Upheaval and the Short Story

Domestic Upheaval and the Short Story:
Hazards of Suburban Living I

Tuesday, January 10, 10 a.m. - 12 noon

Price: $40 ($35 for members)

Books: 
A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You, Amy Bloom
Birds of America, Lorrie Moore
Matisse Stories, A.S. Byatt

In this two-hour course, part of an occasional series, we will examine three short stories, each told from a woman’s perspective, each focused on a particular brand of domestic disharmony. We’ll consider these stories as mirrors of contemporary life, exploring the subtexts as well as common themes.  At the same time, we’ll analyze craft-related choices the writers have made, in particular, the impact of point-of-view and tone, as well as the careful selection of descriptive details, and what the reader learns from both the deliberate inclusion and the deliberate exclusion of information.  

“Help me,” demands the narrator at the opening of Amy Bloom’s story, “The Gates Are Closing,” in which a woman carries on an illicit affair with a chronically ill married man.  Her plea echoes through all three of these stories of women on the brink. In Lorrie Moore’s “Charades,” the members of a family display their individual and collective dysfunctions in the course of an ill-advised parlor game.  In A.S. Byatt’s "Medusa’s Ankles," a woman’s unhappiness is teased out during salon visits with her over-sharing stylist. 

Three contemporary short stories by three different writers, three by turns funny and heartbreaking visions of domestic life.

 ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

Paula Whyman’s stories have appeared in journals and anthologies, including Writes of Passage: Coming of Age Stories and Memoirs from The Hudson Review (Ivan R. Dee, 2008), Gargoyle magazine, Delmarva Review, and Bethesda Magazine.  She earned her MFA in literature from The American University, where she received the Myra Sklarew Thesis Award.  She’s the recipient of an MSAC grant and short story honors including the Virgin Fiction award.  She teaches for the Pen/Faulkner Foundation’s writers in schools program in DC and The Hudson Review’s similar program in NY, and she is a MacDowell Colony fellow.